


Don't Mess Around With Jim

by msgordo (kipplemine)



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Angst and Humor, Blair copes very well considering all his cop friends are borderline lunatics, Complete, First Kiss, Jim isn't even the most irrational character here, Law Enforcement, M/M, Minor Violence, abject silliness on behalf of seeming law enforcement professionals, departmental shame, not even the author, overreaction to a situation, so no one thought of the most obvious solution, to be fair they could have just called Blair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-22
Updated: 2013-01-22
Packaged: 2017-11-26 11:52:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/650238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kipplemine/pseuds/msgordo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Re-post of a fic to 852. Thanks to Arianna for betaing, britpicking and for persuading me to re-post my old fics. Title taken from an old Jim Croce song.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Mess Around With Jim

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Arianna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arianna/gifts).



Sam Thomas, student president of the Rainier University mentoring program for under-privileged children, turned his back on his young charges and their chaperones and held his temperamental cell phone to his ear as he tried to hear above the screams and shouts of over-excited children. "Hello? I'm calling on behalf of Blair Sandburg. This is a message for Detective Ellison. Could you tell him that Blair has been unexpectedly called out of town today and will be back sometime this afternoon?" 

He scowled as his phone hissed and crackled warningly in his ear and fought to catch the words of the police operator on the other end. "It's okay, Sandburg says not to worry, we won't hurt him. I'm afraid that we won't bring him back before three at the earliest, but Blair says he'll still drop the case of beer he promised off at Captain Bank’s house." 

Sam laughed as he caught sight of one Blair Sandburg chasing a small boy of about seven across the parking lot and capturing the delighted child with much fake growling and snarling. "Somehow I don't think a day spent in the fresh air will kill him. Thanks." Sam grinned as Blair and his prisoner approached and reached out to ruffle the boy's blond hair as he terminated the call. "It's all taken care of, Blair, the station and Jim know you're okay."

Blair grinned back and turned the child in his arms upside down, jumping lightly up and down to the hysterical squeals of the squirming kid. "Thanks, Sam." He shook the child one more time. "Buddy boy here was kinda insistent that I went with him to the bathroom and Jim would not have been happy if he'd have called Rainier looking for me and I turned up missing. You know how he gets."

Sam laughed. "Oh yeah. Okay, all bathroom trips seem to be taken care of. Let's get this show on the road!"

And thus began the worst day of Detective James Ellison's life.

~*~*~*~*~

There was a tense silence in the Major Crimes bullpen as the audiotape on Jim Ellison's desk ran out. Simon Banks made a determined effort to swallow his heart, which seemed to have somehow lodged in his throat, and nodded at the white-faced Sentinel. "Play it again." All eyes fixed on Jim as he rewound the tape to press play and the sound of static once more filled the room.

"...Sandburg... hurt him." Joel Taggert found himself clutching Inspector Megan Connor's hand as they listened again to the broken message that had been phoned into the station just a little while before. "...Won't bring him back... drop the case... will kill him." The hisses of static faded out as Jim snapped the tape off once again and turned tortured eyes up to his Captain.

"Simon, I've got to do something, I can't just sit here." He scrubbed a shaking hand over his sweating face. "Someone's got him and they're going to kill him. I don't even know what case they're referring to on the tape."

"When did this come in?" Simon forced himself to focus on the threat as though it was just another faceless victim and not the man he'd come to call one of his closest friends. "How long did the switchboard operators have it?"

"It's been fifteen minutes, sir." Megan's voice shook with emotion and she felt nausea churn in her stomach at the thought of Blair alone and at the mercy of whatever crazy had snatched him this time. "A copy's already gone down to Forensics to see if they can clean it up any, but there wasn't time to get a trace on the line."

Jim gripped the edge of his desk with white-knuckled hands. "They won't find anything, the interference on the line is too bad." He swallowed back the bile that was rising in his throat. "Christ, I've got to find him."

"We will; we'll find him, babe." Henri Brown reached out and patted reassuringly at Jim's rigid shoulder. "We'll get him back, Ellison."

It was an indication of just how worried and lost Jim was that he didn't snarl at the other man but just bowed his head and stared hopelessly at his boots. "I don't know where to start."

"Jim, you're not on your own here." Simon took control with his usual gusto. "I’ll ask Rhonda to get me a summary of all the recent cases you and Sandburg have been working on and any that are going to court in the near future. Joel, put out an APB on Blair. Rafe, Brown, alert all the other departments to what's happened. Connor, get down to Forensics and ride them until we get the results we need. Anything else you're working on is dropped until we find Blair. Move, people!" His detectives scattered and Simon looked down at Jim still staring sightlessly at his shoes. "It's okay, Jim, we'll find him for you."

Within an hour the detectives of Major Crimes had compiled a list of the five most likely suspects to have snatched Blair and were streaming out the door clutching a handful of search warrants and every big gun they could get their nervously sweating hands on.

~*~*~*~*~

Blair stared in stricken silence at the roller-coaster that dominated the skyline above the busy amusement park and then at the four eager faces that surrounded him. "Don't even think about it." He groaned as the kids laughed and tugged him impatiently forward. "Oh God, Jim, where the hell are you when I need you?"

~*~*~*~*~

"FREEZE, CASCADE PD! LAY DOWN ON THE FLOOR AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEADS!" 

Lily Davenport stared in horrified amazement as the morning's entertainment at her upmarket and exclusive brothel was interrupted by two very large men bursting through the front door and pointing equally large guns at two of her clients and four of her new working girls. 

"LEAVE YOUR PANTS WHERE THEY ARE AND GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR!"

Rafe, Henri and Megan followed Simon and Jim through the door and moved to sprint up the stairs leading to the private entertainment rooms on the second floor, whilst Joel made a start on cuffing the protesting working girls and their decidedly under-dressed clients. Jim stormed across the room towards the Madam that he had interviewed the previous week with his partner and pushed his snarling face into her shocked one. "Where is he?"

Lily blinked and tried to move back a step from the angry detective, but could only squeak as her silk-covered back ended up against the wall. "Where's who? I don't know what you're talking about!"

Jim scowled ferociously down at the hard-faced woman that was under investigation for supplying underage girls and boys to high-paying customers and ripped a piece of paper out of his pocket to wave it under her nose. "My partner. I have authorisation here to rip this place apart and I'll do it unless you Tell. Me. Where. He. Is." Jim punctuated his last few words with hard thumps to the wall beside the woman's head and leaned in until the tips of their noses were almost touching. "What have you done with him?"

"Nothing, I swear!" Lily blinked cold sweat out of her eyes and shook in her three-hundred-dollar heels as she tried to lean away from Jim. "Why would I do anything to him?"

"You wanted him, I know you did. Remember calling him 'Angel'? All those cracks about his ass and selling himself short?" Jim growled and punched the wall again. "Tell me where he is!" He tried in vain to listen to the woman's heartbeat, but couldn't hear anything over the roar of his own blood pounding in panic in his ears. "If you've touched him, I swear –"

"I haven't! Do I look stupid to you?"

"You'd do anything to make us back off investigating you." Jim was nearly panting with frustrated fear for his missing friend. "You've taken him and I want him back. NOW!"

"Jim." Simon tried to tug his friend back and only succeeded in making Jim lean back an inch before he sprang back into his previous position like a rabid Weeble. "JIM! You need to calm down. Now come on and help us search this rat-hole. The uniforms will watch her." An exasperated explosion of air left Simon's lips as Jim planted his feet more firmly and refused to move. "Ellison, we need to find Sandburg; now quit pissing around and help us find your goddamned partner!"

"Captain?" Simon, Jim and Lily all looked towards the stairs at the sound of Megan's voice and saw the Australian woman standing at the top with a bracing arm wrapped around the shoulders of a sobbing girl who couldn't be more than thirteen. "There's another two upstairs and one young boy." Megan narrowed disgusted eyes at the woman pinned to the wall by Jim. "Lady, you are so busted."

Joel took a closer look at the man lying on the floor, sans pants, that he had just cuffed and frowned in sudden recognition. "Simon?" He waited until he had his friend's attention and pointed at his prisoner. "I think I know why we couldn't find Judge Peterson to sign off on those search warrants."

Simon glared down at the man on the floor, sighed and covered his eyes with his hand. "If I can't see it, it’s not there, Joel. Turn His Honour over to the uniforms and let's get a move on." He tugged gently on Jim's arm as the Sentinel watched Lily be led away in cuffs. "Come on, Jim, we need to look around. If we can't find any evidence of Blair or his whereabouts here, we need to move on, okay?"

~*~*~*~*~

Blair's eyes bugged as he peered over the edge of the roller-coaster car he was sitting in and looked down the sheer drop that started the ride. He opened his mouth to scream as the car moved forward with a jolt and didn't hear the delighted laugh of the child sitting next to him. "Aaaaah!"

~*~*~*~*~

After a fruitless search of Lily Davenport's bordello, and a hasty disarming of Megan after she tried to force information out of the woman with her gun, Major Crimes moved on to their next location and left the uniform and two detectives from Vice to follow through on the investigation and, hopefully, dig up some relevant information. Joel rode with Megan, still sulking that she wasn't allowed to shoot her suspect's kneecaps off, while Rafe and Brown followed Simon and Jim in Simon's car. As scared and worried as they all were about Blair, the one thing that all of the detectives agreed on was that it wasn't a good idea to let Ellison drive in his current homicidal state. 

Unfortunately they couldn't do anything to hold him back once he got out of the car.

"Where is he?" Jim didn't bother to go around the table separating him from his newest suspect, and instead just hurled himself over it and rammed his gun right between the startled drug baron's eyes. " _What have you done with him_?"

"Ellison." Davey McKenzie flung himself back in his chair and tried to get away from the red-faced, yelling man that held the collar of his shirt in a tight grip with one hand and was pressing the barrel of a gun between his eyes with the other. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

Jim snarled, ground the gun harder between his captive’s terrified eyes and ignored the sounds of his colleagues subduing McKenzie's assorted cohorts behind him. "Liar!" He slithered his body across the three million dollars worth of bagged drugs that were being crushed between him and the table and went nose to nose with his prisoner. "If you've hurt him, I'm going to kill you!"

Megan looked up from the two hundred and thirty pound man she had just beaten to the floor and her eye caught on a rickety staircase in the corner of the warehouse they had just invaded. "Jim, there are more rooms upstairs, let's go!" Not waiting for her friend, she jumped the moaning body at her feet and sprinted across the warehouse floor.

"You'd better hope there's not a mark on him when I get him back." Jim gave Davey one last fierce glare and then took off after Connor as their uniformed backup began to take over the crime scene to allow Simon and the other detectives to follow their friends. "Just one mark and you're a dead man!"

McKenzie watched with an open mouth and incredulous eyes as his multi-million dollar drug operation was destroyed and then jumped as a heavy hand landed on his shoulder. He looked up into the hard face of a seasoned beat cop and whined in plaintive bewilderment, "Just one mark on _who_?"

~*~*~*~*~

"Aaaarghh... bleugh!" Blair spluttered and choked as he caught a faceful of water at the bottom of the thirty-foot log flume he had just ridden down. "Oh, man. Cold and wet is my world." He scraped his dripping hair out of his eyes and eyed his sodden clothes bitterly. "Again."

~*~*~*~*~

The next stop for Major Crimes and their dwindling entourage was the den of a Ukrainian crime boss trafficking human slaves all over the US and across the Canadian border. They had surrounded the smoky bar down by the docks of Cascade and sent Megan in to confirm their target was on the premises. As soon as a stool was hurled through the blacked-out window at the front of the bar the assembled cops made their move.

Rafe winced as Jim trod heavily on the back of the goon that had tried to jump them when the gang had made their mandatory dramatic entrance and glanced at his partner. "Ellison's handling this a lot better than I thought he would."

Henri snorted and peered into the back room of the bar as he heard a pained yell, just in time to see Jim jab a large man in a suit on the chin and send him crashing to the floor. "Well, he hasn't shot anyone yet, babe." He winced as Jim jerked the man to his feet and pushed his dazed face into the wall before snapping a pair of cuffs on him. "But it's only a matter of time."

Joel looked reproachfully at Megan as she finished reciting the required legal warning to their suspect, Alexi Djinsky, and turned the stunned man over to a waiting detective from Vice. "You were supposed to signal subtly for backup, Connor." He glanced tellingly towards the ruined window to the bar and then two men that the young Australian had managed to knock out in the thirty seconds it had taken her colleagues to join her. " _Subtly_."

Megan bared her teeth at a man being dragged past, screaming threats and trying to kick out at her. "That *was* subtle, Taggert. If I'd have been going for obvious, I'd have chucked Djinsky through instead." She stepped in front of Simon as he led the increasingly dispirited Jim outside, once again sans his Guide. "Any clues, sir?"

Simon shook his head. "No. Jim!" He crashed into Megan and Joel as Jim suddenly sprinted past him and into the sun outside the bar. "JIM, STOP!"

"Where is he, you bastard?" Jim flung himself at the fortunately locked door of the squad car Djinsky had just been loaded into and pounded on the roof of the car, oblivious to the shocked rookie trying to pull him back. " _Where is he_?"

"Jim, Ellison; back off, babe." Brown threw his arms around Jim's waist and dragged him away as his partner valiantly tried to pin the frantic man's arms to his side. "Just cool it, buddy."

Simon skidded to a halt next to the three struggling men and glared at the rookie still frozen by his patrol car. "Get that piece of crap out of here. Go!" He didn't bother to watch the young man scramble to obey him, instead turning back to his detectives, thankfully now being assisted by Megan and Joel, and began to herd them backwards towards his car. "Jim, calm down. You've got to calm down." Vaguely registering the compassionate understanding looks from the other cops at the scene, Simon consciously pitched his voice to Blair's soothing tone and continued to talk to the yelling Jim. "Just take a few breaths, nice and deep, you aren't helping Blair like this. He's needs you to be at the top of your game. Jim, are you listening to me? Blair needs you to stay cool here."

Jim's adrenaline-induced strength left him abruptly and he sagged heavily in his friends' embrace. "I know. I _know_ , okay? Simon, this is driving me nuts. He needs me and I can't find him. I can't stop thinking that I won't get to him in time and he's alone and scared and he's calling for me and I can't hear him." He tugged free of the arms around him and scrubbed a shaking hand over his burning eyes. "God, Simon, I keep hearing him scream for me and he's so scared." Jim buried his face in his hands as he shook his head back and forth. "All I can hear are his screams."

~*~*~*~*~

"Wheeeee!" yelled Blair Sandburg as he hurtled down the huge, curving tunnel slide on a burlap sack with a shrieking young girl held securely on his lap, "Wheeeee!"

~*~*~*~*~

Jim and the others were getting desperate. It was now past one in the afternoon and Blair had been missing for over five hours. However, there was still no excuse for crashing the twentieth wedding anniversary of Donald Fraser and his loving wife and Joel shooting holes in the celebratory cake out of sheer frustration at yet again finding no clue as to Blair's whereabouts. Donald happened to be currently under investigation for fraud and embezzlement on a multi-million dollar scale and widely held to be responsible for the deaths of two young clerks in his company who had ratted him out to the police. Still, no excuse, despite Joel's half-hearted story that he thought he'd seen an armed perp hiding behind the three-tiered cake, a story that no one really believed but no one felt inclined to dispute.

Simon wiped a thick glob of icing and golden sponge cake off his cheek and scowled at the sheepish Joel before turning to Jim on his other side. "Anything?"

The disconsolate Sentinel shook his throbbing head. "No." He stared around the tattered remains of Fraser's palatial living room and ignored the shrieking, protesting guests and family members surrounding them. "I've looked all over the house and gone with Connor on a quick inspection of the outbuildings on the estate. Blair hasn't been here since he came with me four weeks ago. We're running out of time, Simon."

"Sir, we've found some files upstairs that give us enough to hold Fraser, his wife and their accountant." Rafe ran up to the three men and skidded to an ungainly halt, thanks to yet more cake remains on the floor. "Megan's just overseeing the uniforms taking them away and Henri's talking with the chauffeur cum bodyguard –" The young detective paused as angry voices floated in from outside and then the unmistakable sounds of a knockdown, drag-out fight began. He darted an anxious look over his shoulder, glanced at his Captain and coughed awkwardly. "I'll just go... um... help H interrogate the suspect." He sprinted quickly for the door and paused there for a moment before lunging forwards. "No, man, not the vase! It's price--" A violent crash and a pained grunt signalled the end of the fight. "--less. It's priceless."

"Nuh-uh." Henri Brown sounded far too pleased with himself in Simon's opinion. "It's broken, babe. Bro-ken. Much like this fool will be if I find out he had anything to do with Hairboy vanishing."

Jim drew in a shaky breath and closed his eyes. "Oh God. Blair."

~*~*~*~*~

"Ugh." Blair was an interesting shade of green as he staggered off the teacups ride and fought not to hurl his decidedly unhealthy lunch into a nearby bush. "And I thought Jim's driving was bad. Man, I could use some chamomile tea." He moaned to himself as his little group of four made a beeline for the roller-coaster once again and started to fumble in his backpack for his cell phone. "Hey, guys, wait up! I just want to call my roommate and ask him to pick me something up from the store on his way home, okay?" He groaned pitifully as he was completely ignored and then completely forgot about calling Jim as the oldest of his group started to climb the safety fence that ran alongside the tracks of the ride. "Hey, don't do that. HEY!"

~*~*~*~*~

Simon was the first to admit he was not in the most stable frame of mind when they raided the last of their suspected Blairnapper's hide-outs, but even he was shocked at his own reaction when the Major Crimes team, twelve uniforms and two SWAT teams kicked down the door of Joey Pataloni, Cascade's own answer to the Godfather. The man in question stood calmly from behind his desk. "The hippy isn't here, I haven't seen him and I don't know who snatched him." The immaculately-dressed man, very similar to Jim in looks and age, raised his hands above his head and smirked at the cops fanning out into his office behind his club. "But I hope he fucking died in agony in payment for the money you people have cost me today."

From there it was pretty much all over for Joey Pataloni.

Joel, Rafe and Brown turned instinctively to grab for Jim and restrain him at the man's cruel taunt, but no one thought to grab Simon. Which is how it came to pass that Mr Pataloni found himself kicked around his own office by a shouting six-foot-four police captain with fury twisting every line of his face.

"Oh shit!" Megan holstered her gun and ran forward to wrap her arms around Simon's waist as she tried to drag him back. "Captain, you'll kill him!" This only seemed spur Simon on to greater efforts. "Sir, stop! Someone bloody help me here!"

Two uniforms ran forward at Megan's desperate shout and, after a few confusing and painful moments, succeeded in dragging Simon back and pinning him to the wall. Megan knuckled her hair back and wiped a hand over her mouth as she dropped to her knees beside the groaning man on the floor and began to assess the damages. "I'm gonna... sue... your fucking asses off!" Pataloni, a man who obviously didn't know when he was beaten, shoved Megan's hand away from his ribs and spat a globule of blood onto her shoe. "You're all dead."

"Fuck you, you arsehole." Megan slapped a hand on the man's forehead and pushed his head back down on the floor with more force than was strictly necessary. "You resisted arrest and we all saw you, right guys?" Firm mutters of agreement sounded from all over the room, along with a couple of inventive death threats from Simon and Jim. "Now, how the hell did you know why we're here? What do you know about Blair Sandburg's disappearance?"

"Nothing." Pataloni coughed and spat out more blood and a tooth, before glaring defiantly up at Megan. "The whole city knows what's been going down today and why it's been happening." He wrapped his arms around his throbbing ribs and moaned again. "Bad news travels fast in the circles I move in."

Megan grunted and got to her feet before hauling Pataloni to his none-too-gently. "Not fast enough, apparently." She shoved the beaten man towards a waiting uniform. "Book him and read him his rights."

Joel kept a firm grip on Jim as Pataloni was led past them and then finally let the writhing Sentinel go. He looked hopelessly towards Simon, now also released by his well-meaning captors. "What now, Simon?"

Simon pulled off his glasses and scrubbed at his weary face before forcing himself to look up into the scared and devastated eyes of his detectives. "I don't know, Joel, I just don't know." His eyes rested on Jim's empty expression for long moments. "We need to start praying for a miracle."

~*~*~*~*~

"How ya doin', Blair?" Sam grinned at the exhausted TA when he boarded the bus that had arrived to take the rambunctious group of children and their carers home. "Have fun?"

Blair sank down into the seat beside his student and turned baleful blue eyes on the laughing young man. "I've had less stressful days getting shot at with Jim." He leaned his head back and tried to ignore the way his hair stuck to his left cheek, thanks to one of his group getting way too excited about some cotton candy and somehow managing to smear it into his curls. "God, I am so tired."

"That's a shame." Sam sniggered as he took in Blair's wrecked appearance. "We've got another trip booked next week, this time with the older kids in the program. I was kinda hoping you'd join us."

Blair didn't even open his eyes as he stated firmly and with great conviction, "Sam, I see you anywhere near me inside the next two weeks and I'll set Jim on you. It won't be pretty; don't make me do it, man."

Sam sniggered again. "That's a no then?"

Blair sighed as he felt the bus rumble to life under him and tried to tune out the racket from the kids behind him. "That's a hell no, Sam." He cracked one eye open and glared warningly at the now openly laughing man. "In fact, you ever ask me to do one of these things again, you can forget about Jim because I'll just shoot you myself, got it?"

Sam nodded. "Got it."

Blair closed his eye. "Good."

~*~*~*~*~

An air of failure and desolation hung over the bullpen in Major Crimes as Simon presided over a hastily put together meeting with all the departments that had been involved in the day's activities and that were now supplying the results from the information they had gathered. The Major Crimes gang listened as one after the other their colleagues reported that they had received precisely no helpful information as to the whereabouts of one Blair Sandburg. Megan sat perched on her desk between Joel and Rafe and found herself once again clutching the older man's hand as she watched Jim's face get paler and more hopeless with every person that spoke.

Brown clasped a hand onto his partner's shoulder as Rafe shifted uncomfortably at the sight of the normally stoic and emotionless Jim falling apart so publicly, and exchanged a worried look with Simon. The Captain's eyes darted down to the Sentinel at his side, almost folded in two as he sat huddled on his chair with his arms wrapped around his waist and staring blankly at the floor. "Jim? You okay?" Simon lightly touched the younger man's arm, fearing a zone out, as Jim ignored him and the room silenced around them. "Come on, don't go away on me now. Don't give up, man, it's not over yet."

Jim blinked a few times, raising his head slowly and painfully to focus on his anxious friend. "It is. It's just like Alex all over again, only this time I can't get to him in time to save him." He took a deep, shuddering breath. "I let him down, Simon, and now Blair's gone and he might never come back." His face tight with agony Jim turned his eyes back down and whispered to the floor. "It's all over. Blair's gone."

~*~*~*~*~

Major Crimes' missing anthropologist was exhausted by the time he got to the precinct just before five that afternoon. When Sam, one of his best students, had burst into his office shortly after he arrived at Rainier that morning and begged him to come along as a last-minute chaperone on a trip to an amusement park with some of Cascade's most underprivileged children, Blair had agreed without hesitation.

He had been planning on spending the day doing some research in the university library, but there was nothing that couldn't wait for another day, and he'd happily cast his plans out the window and followed the younger man out the door. Nine hours later he was severely traumatised from the high speed rides he had been forced to go on, sore from being constantly thrown against restraints and the sides of fast-moving roller-coasters, and he was covered from head to foot in the remnants of the sticky treats that the kids seemed incapable of walking three feet without.

In consequence, Blair was too busy trying to get cotton candy out of his hair to see the stunned looks that followed in his wake as he made his muttering way into the station. He was also too intent on reaching Major Crimes and the largest, hottest cup of coffee he could find to realise that a trail of amazed cops followed him all the way up the stairs and onto the Major Crimes floor. Scowling, he stomped down the hall to the bullpen and pushed his way through the door and into the middle of the update on his own suspected murder investigation. "Oops, sorry guys." More concerned with pulling bits of sugar from his curly hair than apologising properly for interrupting what was obviously an important meeting, Blair waved a casual hand in the air and dropped his bag on the floor. "Don't mind me, I'll just go and get a cup of coffee. Be right back."

"Sandburg." Simon clutched at his chest as his heart gave a warning twinge, and heard Jim gasp and suddenly come to life at his side. "Jesus. Sandburg."

Blair looked up from where he was rooting optimistically in his pockets for some change for the sandwich machine. "Hey, Simon." He glanced around the packed room at the shell-shocked expressions surrounding him. "Hey, guys. Sorry to interrupt, I didn't realise that... OOF!" He staggered back as Megan and Joel threw themselves at him and wrapped shaking arms around his aching body. "What the hell?"

"Sandy." Megan ruined her hard-ass, one-of-the-boys persona for all time and burst into tears as she pressed her face into Blair's sugarcoated, sticky curls. "You're alive!"

"Megan?" Blair spluttered as he tried to avoid the happy kisses being plastered over his shocked face and Joel tightened his grip around his neck. "Cut it out! What's with you guys?" He finally fought his way free and took a step back. "What's going on? Is Jim... HEY!" Blair yelled with surprise as he felt his feet leave the floor and clutched frantically at Brown's shoulders for balance as he was spun jubilantly through the air by Henri and the shouting, laughing Rafe. "Cut it out!"

Unceremoniously dropped back onto his feet, Blair stared in bewilderment at the cheering, crying cops surrounding him and then sighed in relief when he saw a grim-faced Jim and Simon bearing down on him through the press of people. "Guys, what the hell is going on here? Has everyone gone... Aaaah!" Blair wriggled frantically as the two much larger men yanked him into a messy multi-armed hug and practically swallowed him whole.

"Blair. Chief." Jim shook as he breathed in the scent of his friend and felt the pounding of Blair's heart against his side. "Oh God, Blair."

Blair twisted his face to the side and gasped for air. "Jim, man, what's happened?" He tried to wriggle free once more and then froze in horror when he heard what seemed to be sobs coming from his Sentinel and Simon. "Oh God, someone's died. Who died? Is it Naomi? Jim, is Naomi alright? Is Darryl okay?" Becoming seriously frightened, Blair landed an awkward series of punches on any body parts he could reach in a bid for his freedom. "Who's hurt? Jim, is it my mom? JIM!"

At last registering his friend's distress, Jim reluctantly loosened his hold and looked down into Blair's flushed, anxious face. "You. _You_ died, Blair." Dimly aware that Simon was shaking hard at his side, Jim clutched at his friend once more. "Oh God, you were dead!" His hands ran up and down Blair's suddenly rigid body in panic. "Are you hurt? Do you need a doctor? Tell me where it hurts, buddy."

Blair was shaken out of his dazed state when Jim's worried hands got a little more familiar with his butt than was usual, and he wrenched free, scandalised. "Hey. HEY!" Batting away Simon and Jim as they reached for him again, Blair danced back skittishly and eyed his friends with trepidation. "You thought I was dead?" Jerky nods and wet eyes were his answer as his friends watched him back up another few paces to fold his arms and run a jaundiced eye over the emotional room.

Blair shook his head, sighed wearily and reached for a nearby pad and pencil. "Okay, I'm going to need a list of everything you guys have eaten today, any strange foods that might have mysteriously shown up out of nowhere, and any substances that you might have come into contact with. Rafe, let's start with you." He peered over the top of his notepad at the young detective. "C'mon, man, give me something to work with here."

Dumbfounded, Rafe found himself following the gentle order. "I, er, I haven't eaten anything. We've been busy and..."

Blair grunted impatiently. "Okay, no food. Have you drunk anything?" With a sly twinkle in his eye at the indignant look on Rafe's face, Blair grinned. "Slipped out for a quick beer at lunch, huh? Man, you have got to start taking proper care of yourself. What do I keep telling you? Jeez, I don't turn in for one day and... and... and..." Blair stopped talking and looked up in confusion into Jim's twitching face as the older man gripped his biceps and shook him hard. "Jim?"

"Chief, where have you been? What happened to you?" Scarcely able to believe he was actually holding Blair when he had given up all hope of ever seeing him alive again, Jim tightened his grip painfully. "Who took you, pal?"

"Huh?" Blair winced at the fingers digging into his flesh. "No one took me. I've been at the amusement park with a bunch of under-privileged kids for the day. I was helping out a friend from Rainier. One of the other chaperones got sick at the last minute and the whole trip would have been cancelled if they couldn't find someone who'd got the necessary clearance to work with pre-teens, so I stepped into the breach." He pulled against Jim's hold on him and sighed as the fingers refused to budge. "Didn't you get the message my friend left you with the switchboard? I made sure someone called as soon as I knew what was happening. You know how you get if you call Rainier looking for me and I'm not there."

Jim nodded stupidly in agreement. Yes, he did know how he got. Now, unfortunately, so did the rest of Cascade.

Brown began making a slight wheezing noise as he looked at Blair's apologetic face. "You were... You were..." The wheezes turned into choking which finally turned into bellows of hysterical laughter. "You were at a _fun fair_?"

Blair flashed half a grin and shuffled his feet nervously. "Uh-huh." He shuddered as he remembered the events of the day. "And it was in no way 'fun'. They made me go on this huge roller-coaster thing, man, and it was, like, a hundred feet high. I was with a bunch of ten-year-olds and they just would not take no for an answer and made me go on this other thing that dropped you fifty feet and all you had to hold you in was a little strip of nylon across your waist." Blair shook his head and smiled nervously up at Jim. "I tell you, buddy; the next time you have to drop me out of a plane, you won't hear me complaining. Amusement parks are _so_ not my idea of fun."

Jim stared down at his best friend and Guide and gave brief thought to beating the ever-loving crap out of him for the hell that he had unwittingly put his friends through that day. Then, as he sucked in a breath to begin a truly gargantuan roar, the familiar, comforting scent of home wrapped around him and he yanked Blair into an embrace that had him standing on tiptoes and yelping with shock. He ignored their audience, the smirks and knowing nudges from the assorted detectives and beat cops watching from the door and just buried his face in the warm, sweet-smelling curls and held on tight to Blair's rigid body. "I thought I'd lost you again."

Blair's eyes rounded at Jim's husky, almost shamed, whisper and then, finally, caught on to what his friend had been through that day while he'd been screaming through various fairground attractions. Hesitantly he wound his arms around Jim's waist and turned his face to press into the side of Jim's neck. "You big jerk. If anything happened to me you'd know it, Jim. You know that. You'd always know it."

"I know. I do." Jim nodded and breathed Blair in deep again. "I was just so scared, Chief. I couldn't think, you were gone and everything just went nuts."

Blair squeezed one more time and then eased back to look with shining eyes up into Jim's face. "But now I'm back. I'll always come back, buddy." He chuckled shakily and patted Jim's face with an affectionate hand. "I think you've blown your lone-wolf-macho image all to shit, Ellison."

Jim frowned and then realised he was the target of more goofy grins than he could shake a large stick at. He scowled at the watching cops and hurriedly released Blair. "Hey, I wasn't the one kicking the crap out of Joey Pataloni and damn near sobbing my ass off at the same time." He grinned evilly at his boss. "Right, Simon?"

Blair turned with wide eyes and an equally evil smile to stare at the mortified Captain. "Simon?" He sniggered and batted his eyelashes. "I didn't know you cared, man."

"Shut up, Sandburg." Simon glowered at his favourite observer, then at the cops still crowding his bullpen and pointedly ignored the muffled snorts of laughter from Blair's direction. "Anyone who isn't attached to my department had better be at least a floor away by the time I count to five or they'll be sorry they ever got born."

Blair, shaking with repressed mirth, waved merrily to the departing cops and grinned up at Simon. "Not your best effort, Banks. I think you're losing your touch." He blithely ignored the fierce glare Simon turned on him and good-naturedly submitted to another round of petting and affectionate touches by his jubilant friends. "Guys, I'm fine, chill out." He snagged Jim's sleeve and led him over to their desk to shove him down into a chair and then perched himself on the desk near his friend. "Now, would someone like to fill me in on what the hell happened here today and why you all thought I was dead?"

Jim looked up into the beloved, smiling face and took a moment to listen to the comforting sound of Blair's strong heart pounding at his Sentinel's side where it belonged and then leaned back in his chair with a thankful, contented sigh as their friends gathered around them. "Well, Chief, it was like this..."

~*~*~*~*~

Blair watched Jim worriedly out of the corner of his eye as they traveled down together in the elevator, still not convinced his Sentinel was entirely happy, despite his obvious relief at having Blair safe and well at his side. “You okay, man? You still seem kinda tense.”

Jim dragged his eyes from where he was intently staring at the wall and smiled distractedly down at his best friend. “Yeah, Chief, I’m fine.” He nodded and then his eyes traveled back to the wall once more. “Just a little tired.”

“Right.” Blair stepped through the elevator doors as they opened and headed for his car. “Sounds like quite a day you had.” He laughed as he started to search for his car keys. “I can’t believe you guys did all that just for me.” Blair looked up as a big hand clamped onto his wrist and began to tow him towards Jim’s truck. “Jim, my car’s over there, big guy.”

“I know.” Feeling slightly foolish, but not quite enough to release Blair, Jim unlocked his car and bundled his friend inside. “I’ll give you a ride in tomorrow, just…” He could feel himself start to blush and couldn’t make himself meet the curious blue eyes fixed on his face. “I just don’t think…I mean, I don’t feel…”

“A ride home would be great, Jim.” Blair patted his Sentinel’s shoulder and smiled. “Thanks, I’m kinda beat.”

“Right.” Jim nodded and closed the door before walking around to his side of the truck and then standing there and staring blankly his own door. “Ok.”

Blair watched him patiently for a few moments before frowning. “Uh, Jim? Kinda works better with the whole going home thing if you’re actually in the truck and we’re moving, man.” Jim blinked, shook his head and then fumbled for the door handle. He climbed in and then sat staring through the windshield clenching and unclenching his hands on the steering wheel. Blair waited once again and then rolled his eyes. “And now we close the door and turn the key to start the truck.”

“I really thought you were dead.” Jim’s voice was desperately low and he still wouldn’t look at Blair, but the anthropologist froze in his seat like the older man had suddenly yelled at him. “Every time we went through a different door today, I was convinced I’d find your body on the other side.” His knuckles shone white through his skin as his hands tightened on the plastic of the steering wheel. “I totally lost my mind today and I just didn’t care because you were dead. I’ve never lost control like that in my life.”

Blair stared at the rigid figure next to him and felt a wave of shame sweep over him at his earlier casual dismissal of his friends’ emotions at his ‘resurrection.’ “Jim…” He swallowed and coughed to clear his husky throat. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Sandburg.” Jim blinked in surprise as his mouth blurted out the words and then his whole body relaxed as though a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “My God. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.” For the first time he seemed able to meet Blair’s equally surprised eyes. “That has to mean something, right?”

“Uh…” At a loss as he looked into Jim’s eyes and saw the violent emotions there, completely at odds with the calm expression on Jim’s face, Blair nodded hesitantly. “I guess. Maybe it’s a Sentinel…” He stopped, mainly because Jim had clamped a large hand over his mouth and was now glaring at him less than lovingly.

“If you say it’s a Sentinel/Guide thing, I swear to God, Simon will have to arrest _me_ for your murder, Sandburg.” Jim waited a moment to be sure Blair had got his less than subtle hint and then took his hand away to rest on Blair’s shoulder. “When I said I lost it, I wasn’t talking about the senses, they worked just fine.” Jim’s other hand came up to rub at his chest as he continued. “I had this hole inside me and I didn’t even realise that it had been filled up these last few years until it emptied out on me again. When you…left…at the fountain, it all happened so fast, y’know? I mean, I was scared and angry and you just laid there and wouldn’t breathe and I couldn’t hear you, but then you came back and everything was okay again.” 

Blair looked as though he would very much like to disagree with this assessment of the time after Alex and the unfortunate ‘death’ incident, but in the interests of watching James Ellison talk more in a few moments than he ever had in his life, he bit his tongue. Hard. With extreme prejudice. 

Jim looked a bit baffled as to why his friend was now looking at him with a constipated expression and tears in his eyes, but put it down to ingestion of more junk food than Blair was used to and carried on regardless. “What I’m saying is that I had time to really think about what life would be like without you and, well, it wouldn’t be good, Chief.”

Blair’s teeth released his abused tongue –he had a feeling he’d be needing it shortly—and he nodded slowly. “So what are you saying?”

“I don’t like the hole.” Jim’s brow creased as he sought for the words to explain himself and his hand tightened on Blair’s shoulder. “I didn’t really ever notice it when I was with Carolyn and before, but I don’t think I can go back to living like that when I know how it feels to be…”

“Full?” Blair grinned, with just a touch of experimental lust, and waggled his eyebrows. “You want me to fill you up?”

Jim grinned back and didn’t bother conducting any experiments with lust, he was an action kind of guy, and went straight to full blown hungry, loving desire. “Couldn’t hurt.” He glanced over Blair’s disheveled figure and the grin faded to a smirk. “You’re not exactly the biggest guy in the world.” Blair’s eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to protest but Jim never gave him the chance. 

The hand on Blair’s shoulder moved to the back of his neck and he was suddenly the recipient of the most tender, needy kiss he’d ever had bestowed on him in his life. His tongue --recognizing a golden opportunity when it felt one-- decided that Blair’s teeth had inflicted enough damage for one day and moved to take up residence in Jim’s mouth to see if the Sentinel’s molars would be any kinder to it. From the lights going off behind Blair’s eyes when his tongue completed its mission, Jim’s teeth were the Red Cross of the oral world and he slid across the seat to allow all of his body to enjoy his tongue’s good fortune and see if the rest of Jim’s body lived up to the promise of his mouth. It did.

Simon Banks, on his way to his own car, stopped dead in the middle of the car park and glared at the two men in the truck, wrapped around each other with the driver’s door still hanging open. “Hell.” He shoved a hand in his pocket to snatch out a cigar and ram it into his mouth. “Fucking Sentinels.”

Jim reluctantly pulled back from the dazed man in his arms, finally managing to shut his door and turn the key in the ignition as he heard Simon’s weary comment. “Not yet.” He grinned at Blair’s mystified expression and floored the gas, making sure to give Simon a wave as they peeled out and headed for home. “But give me twenty minutes and I will be.”

The End.


End file.
